October 21, 20
by KianajLau
Summary: Some Pernico/Nicercy friendship bonding or when Nico explains his first tattoo to Percy. It was a date to commemorate his first tattoo, and not even properly, but other than that..? 'Of course it has a meaning' 'October 21, 20? What does that even mean' 'It's the day I got my first tattoo! I've said so a million times' Oneshot!


"Truth or dare?"

Percy was throwing another one of his infamous college 'study sessions' and nearly everyone was there, Percy could proudly say that because his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, _finally_ agreed to go to his party, just that one time, even though she promised she wouldn't have any fun. The drunken blonde in front of him definitely was not having any fun. Laughing as she spilled her drink, she repeated,

"Truth or dare? Come on! I bet you all want to do something crazy or, if not, have something crazy to share?" She had an insinuating tone as she raised her eyebrows, bursting out laughing after leaning back into Percy's arms. Looking up coyly, Annabeth chose her first victim.

"Percy, truth or dare?" His sea green eyes gleamed as his name left his lips, ready to face whatever she had prepared. He buried his face in her hair. She smelt of strawberries. He kissed the top of her head.

"Cute. But don't think you can make me forget you have a question to answer! I'm onto you." The blonde trailed off and Percy ran his fingers through her princess curls, shaking her head slightly as he did so. "Oh, right. Truth or dare?"

Deciding to go the simple route but also fearing what devious plans drunken Annabeth could come up with, he cheekily replied, "Truth."

"What's the craziest thing you've ever done?"

Percy pondered this, staring off into the distance as he mimed stroking his nonexistent beard. "Date this one?" He leaned forward as he spoke to his circle of friends, jerking his thumb back to Annabeth, nearly taking out her eye. "Just kidding, I love you, don't be mad." Curling over and wrapping his arm around the girl in front of him, he thought for a while before finally answering, "I nearly drowned someone… nearly drowned a lot of people. But it was in the past. I'm a changed man now!" Everyone nodded unconvincingly as he mustered his most innocent grin.

Disregarding their looks of disbelief, Percy brushed off the hurt and quickly straightened up. He scanned the crowd. Clarisse La Rue, the scariest girl alive who would probably kick him in the balls if he said, asked, or did anything insulting in the slightest, Grover Underwood, his best friend, who wasn't really into immature party games like this and would much rather be doing his part in saving the world one step at a time by reducing, reusing, and recycling… Nico DiAngelo. Perfect.

Nico was emo, punk, goth, whatever you wanted to call it. Dark shaggy hair fell over his eyes, covering the dark bags under scrutinous eyes. His shoulders hunched over, shielding his body from view.

As they made eye contact, Percy grinned at Nico. Cocking his head to the side, a death glare rested on Nico's face. Tilting it to the other side, he frowned. The small movements developed into a slow head shake, which turned frantic as the younger boy desperately mouthed 'no' repeatedly.

Percy dragged out the 'n' in 'Nico' as he called out his friend. "Dude, you're up. Truth. Or. Dare?"

"Or."

"Truth, dare."

Rolling his pitch black, midnight eyes, Nico hoarsely responded, "Truth."

Everyone cupped their hands around their mouths as they booed, throwing thumbs down, frowning, and… throwing up. Classy. The friends all had ten drinks too many and were horribly drunk. Some, like Percy, could handle their alcohol better than others, but most… they were not in the best shape.

"Okay, okay. Calm down, everyone." Percy took in Nico, trying to find something to poke and prod at. Nico squirmed under the gaze of his former crush. A grin broke out on Percy's face. "You're emo-"

"Punk!"

"… edgy. You have dark hair, dark eye bags, I'm certain you wear dark eyeliner- no? Okay. You fit perfectly into the mold of a sad, angsty, _punk_ teen. So the question begs to be asked: do you have- drumroll please- a tattoo?"

Everyone knew Nico didn't. They taunted him all the time on amping up his darkness by getting tattoos, piercings, and painting his nails. He didn't want to admit it, but he was too scared to do those things. Except for the latter. He wasn't scared, and he would _never_ paint his nails. That would be going too far.

"Actually, yeah. I do." A light smile graced his features as the punk boy took in the expressions of his friends. The smile looked sinister on his face, but it was reminiscent of the one he bore when he was happier. When Bianca was still alive.

"I could show you all. If you want to see." Immediately, cries and cheers of 'yes' and 'heII yeah' broke out, but Percy hesitated.

"Nico, can I- can we talk? Outside, I mean."

"Yeah, sure."

A series of complaints rang out within the basement but Annabeth shushed them all. "Let the boys talk. Hush hush." And then she promptly fell asleep in a pile of vomit- her's or someone else's, he didn't know. Disgusting yet somehow adorable.

"Continue on with the game. Um…"

"Thalia can carry on." Nico exchanged a dark smile with one of his closest friends, another girl who took a liking to wearing dark colors and listening to violent music.

"You got it, Death Breath." She threw him a wink before turning back to the crowd, rubbing her hands together before slapping them on her thighs. "Are you all ready? We're playing dare or dare!"

The last thing Percy heard before he pulled Nico upstairs was a series of groans. Pushing past party-goers and making his way to the front door, Percy had an iron grip on Nico's arm as he dragged him forward. "Hurry up."

Nico looked away, embarrassed by the way Percy took control. "I'm not a little kid."

"I know." Percy kept on marching through the crowd. They were so close to the door. So close to being alone. Percy needed to talk to him. And he needed to talk to him alone.

"Then why are you treating me like one?"

"Because!"

"Because why?" Nico slammed the door shut, rattling the light hanging above; they had stepped over the threshold and onto the front porch long ago.

Percy ran a hand through his hair and blew out his cheeks. He leaned against the wall. "Because… Bianca asked me to." Both froze. "Bianca… asked me to look after you. Bianca wanted me to make sure you stayed her little Neeks-"

" _Don't_ call me that." Nico's death glare didn't falter. Percy sighed.

"Look, man… dude, I just-"

"Nico works fine."

Percy laughed and Nico couldn't help admiring the way he shook his head as it tilted back slightly. When Percy was really laughing, his eyes and nose would scrunch up slightly and his head would be thrown back completely, his bright white teeth glowing as glorious laughter flew from his lips.

Nico turned. There was a moment of silence, a peaceful one, where they both stared in front of them; Percy, who'd moved to the front of the porch, leaning against the rails, staring at the moths flying by the light, and Nico, leaning on top of the rails, staring out at the grass lawn.

"You know," Nico stared ahead, "Bianca… liked fireflies."

"I know. We were all practically siblings."

"And sometimes, we'd run out into the yard and catch them." Percy nodded, watching Nico intently, noticing how his eyes glistened and a single drop rolled slowly down his pale cheek. Nico didn't wipe it away. "And when we caught them, she'd name them. Then she'd set them free. And when she did, she'd say-"

"Bye bye firefly." They both chuckled softly. "I miss her too, Nico."

Said boy stayed quiet. Percy didn't say anything either.

There was a single blinking light in the yard. A firefly. Small, but there. And then more appeared. The drumming of the music was drowned out by the chirp of crickets and the gentle breeze of the night.

"So why'd you do it? Why'd you get a tattoo? You know Bianca _hated_ them."

"She did. But she's not here anymore, now is she?" Percy tried to hide his shock, but he failed. "I know, I know. I said it, right? Well, I didn't outright say it. She's dead. Yeah? Happy?" He slumped forward, staring straight down at the ground. "She's gone."

Percy didn't know what to do. He cleared his throat loudly, an uncomfortable look passing over his face. "Hey, man-"

"Nico."

Percy chuckled, " _Nico_. It's fine. To be in denial, I mean. She'll be happy you moved on…"

"Yeah, she would be. But I haven't moved on. How can you move on from the death of someone?"

Percy ran his hand through his hair again. "You can't. I'm… I'm sorry for being so insensitive."

"No, Perce, I get it. We all handle loss differently. You choose to ignore it." He was hurt, that much Percy understood. What he didn't get was why he was so understanding. He wanted to ask, but he didn't. If he did, Nico might just remember to be mad at him.

"I was hurting. A lot. And you just… acted like everything was okay when it _clearly_ wasn't."

"I'm sorry."

"Are you?"

Percy shut his eyes tight, leaning further back. Then, he turned to Nico so quickly the younger boy flinched. "Hey, if anyone should have died, it- I should be- dead, I- Bianca should still be alive." It was getting harder for Percy to see, the world blurring as his eyes watered. "I didn't mean to- I didn't-"

"Hey, man, it's okay. I get it. I just- I miss her."

"Me too." Another lapse of silence.

"So, what about that tattoo?"

Nico snorted, covering his mouth with his hands. Percy leaned closer, body still turned to the front door but upper body turning to

Nico, giving all of his attention. Nico shifted, ever so slightly, his eyes flickering toward Percy's interested face.

"I just wanted to get one. I just thought that I should do something to get out of my slump. And Bianca always just said to be myself and… and Neeks was giddy and full of excitement, he liked to prove people wrong but bond with them as well. And you guys always said I would be too scared to get a tattoo so one day… I just did it."

Percy hummed, "Sounds reasonable. So," he hesitated, speaking tentatively, "is Neeks back?"

Nico tried to glare, but, try as he might, he couldn't muster up a look vicious enough to scare off Percy. He dropped the glare, letting a slight smile pass over his face. "He may be arriving soon. But he's not here yet, so don't call me that." Percy ruffled Nico's hair, making him slouch further down.

"So? What is it? Where is it? Who, why, when, how is it?"

"Calm down, calm down! You're like a kid on Halloween."

"Candy, candy, candy!"

"It's a date."

"What?" The dumbfounded expression on Percy's face was absolutely adorable to Nico, but he decided to keep that to himself.

"It's a date. My tattoo. It's on my back- lower back- and it's a date."

"What date?"

"The day I got my first tattoo." Nico couldn't help but feel triumphant as he pushed himself off the railing and turned his back to Percy, lifting up the back of his shirt. He was vaguely aware that he was exposing himself to Percy but focused on his tattoo.

"October 21, 20? That's not a date."

"Eh, it's not a _full_ date, but it's part of one."

"Okay…" Nico knew that Percy was nodding, he just knew it, and, for some reason, he felt self-conscious. "What does it mean? Like, what's the story?"

"It represents the day I got my first tattoo."

"First?"

"First of many to come."

"Oh, so you only have one tattoo."

"Yeah."

"And it doesn't have a meaning?"

"Of course it has a meaning!

"October 21, 20? What does that even mean?"

"It's the day I got my first tattoo! I've said so a million times!"

"You've said it a total of two times."

"October 21, 20 was the day I got my first tattoo! Three times now. Only, uh, four hundred… thousand-"

"Dude, no math-ing at my party!"

"That's not a word."

"And October 21, 20 isn't a date!"

"I was going to get the year, but I didn't want my kids to one day ask, 'hey, Dad, you got that tattoo in-' uh, yeah. And then they'll be like, 'you got a tattoo so young, I want one!' Or maybe they'll say, 'you've been alive for this long? Wow, I never knew you were so old,' because I'm obviously going to age _fantastically_ and they wouldn't be able to tell if I was a day over twenty… five. Twenty-five is a good age."

Percy shook his head, chuckling. "You're a strange one, Nico. But… nice tattoo."

And then he walked inside, leaving it up to interpretation on whether or not Nico should follow. He did, though. He followed Percy into the house, tempted to ask- oh, what did he have to lose, "Can we play Mythomagic?"

There was a pause. "Everybody out of the house! Party's over." Many groaned, but Annabeth stumbled up the stairs and shushed everyone.

"Out, out, out! And hurry!" Everyone shuffled out, quick to abandon their drinks and dance partners.

Percy slung his arm over Nico's shoulders, "I have to play some Mythomagic with my little brother, Neeks."


End file.
